China to overtake US on internet use

“A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,” he said. “Generally it’s more difficult for the government to be able to control it.”

“Its real value is as an open window onto what’s happening elsewhere in the world”

Last Updated: Thursday, 20 January, 2005, 11:22 GMT

Chinese ‘to overtake US net use’

The net is steadily becoming more popular in China
The Chinese net-using population looks set to exceed that of the US in less than three years, says a report.
China’s net users number 100m but this represents less than 8% of the country’s 1.3 billion people.

Market analysts Panlogic predicts that net users in China will exceed the 137 million US users of the net by 2008.

The report says that the country’s culture will mean that Chinese people will use the net for very different ends than in many other nations.
Social change

Already net use in China has a very different character than in many Western nations, said William Makower, chief executive of Panlogic.

In many Western nations desktop computers that can access the net are hard to escape at work. By contrast in China workplace machines are relatively rare.

This, combined with the relatively high cost of PCs in China and the time it takes to get phone lines installed, helps to explains the huge number of net cafes in China.

Only 36% of Chinese homes have telephones according to reports.

“Net usage tends to happen in the evening,” said Mr Makower, “they get access only when they go home and go off to the internet café.”

“Its fundamentally different usage to what we have here,” he said.

Computer hardware is still expensive for many Chinese people

Net use in China was still very much an urban phenomenon with most users living on the country’s eastern seaboard or in its three biggest cities.

The net is key to helping Chinese people keep in touch with friends, said Mr Makower. Many people use it in preference to the phone or arrange to meet up with friends at net cafes.

What people can do on the net is also limited by aspects of Chinese life.

For instance, said Mr Makower, credit cards are rare in China partly because of fears people have about getting in to debt.

“The most popular way to pay is Cash-On-Delivery,” he said, “and that’s quite a brake to the development of e-commerce.”

The arrival of foreign banks in China, due in 2006, could mean greater use of credit cards but for the moment they are rare, said Mr Makower.

But if Chinese people are not spending cash online they are interested in the news they can get via the net and the view it gives them on Western ways of living.

“A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,” he said. “Generally it’s more difficult for the government to be able to control it.”

“Its real value is as an open window onto what’s happening elsewhere in the world,” he said.

Government restrictions on how much advertising can appear on television means that the net is a source of many commercial messages Chinese people would not see anywhere else.

Familiarity with the net also has a certain social cachet.

“It’s a sign of them having made it that they can use the internet and navigate around it,” said Mr Makower.

I used to get hits from China on a youth magazine I ran, quite a few of them. I say good for the chinese, their government are attrocious (yet somehow they avoid the labels that the less powerful nations get of ‘evil’) so good for the chinese to be finding ways round state control.

There are more chinese than americans, so logically even though China has a lower percentage of internet users, their number of users will still be higher than a country with a smaller population but a higher percentage of internet users.

Now that China has the internet, they can do away with old-fashioned billboards and concentrate on e-banners saying “Work Hard” and “Enjoy the Redness of this Banner.”

Dear Boris,
Very upset that you are curtailing my access to the Spectator online. I shall miss it immensely.
Can you not be prevailed upon to change your mind?It was lovely being able to read the spec for free and restricting access only limits your capacity to advise and influence. Things will be very dull without you.

I think I read somewhere that a lot of news websites are blocked from China – I guess they can do this as it seems that most people access the web from ‘internet cafes’, where access can be controlled.

Big Brother is very big in some parts of the world. We should be grateful at the freedoms we have.

Did I say I did? “Google Watch” wasn’t, in any vase, where I originally read the story but merely what came up when I searched for it again. And yes I know about the “missing pictures” that are still there. China is another matter: it seems to me there’s a question mark there – but I’ve no firm opinion.

My favourite internet cafe was in Beijing: the Sanlian Shudian Internet Cafe, above a bookshop at 22 Meishuguan Dongjie (telephone 6400 1122 extension 3057), behind the Zhongguo Meishuguan (‘National Institute of Fine Arts’). It had excellent coffee and cakes and I nominated it for some kind of award for the best internet café in the world. That was a few years ago. I am not sure if it is still there. I hope it is.

The Chinese (of the eastern cities) are the product of a paradox which is also true of eastern Europe. The government provided them with a good rational, secular education and then denied them access to knowledge, books and the world. They taught them to challenge past authority, and then denied them freedom to question present authority.

So, the Chinese have a great hunger for information and technology. It’s hardly surprising that they love the internet. Would that the Brits had a tenth of their motivation! What couldn’t we accomplish in our whinging little, mortgage-fixated, TV-zombie, stay-at-home islands if we had just a ounce of the positive spirit of the Chinese!

I must share this with you all: I was searching on Google for “censorship of the internet” to look stuff up about the restrictions in China and other countries, like Iran, when I came across (for no reason that I can think of) the gloriously bonkers http://goingtothedogs.blogspot.com/ – what a shame it is no longer updated! As the site says: “This country, nay this planet, is going to the dogs. The evidence is in the newspapers every day.”

Michael Howard has made a valid point and comes across as accessible by giving his URL.

What struck me is that commonsense in spades will not win hearts and minds. What about the _yay !!_ factor. Something very heartening or warm and funny, dynamic and _really wow_.

C’mon what could that be? what could burst the seams? really crack people’s ribs with laughter or open their minds to a brand new invigorating way of thinking? It is wonderful to be gripped with political imagination and get others hopping with joy or with a sense of new freedoms opened and concerns unburdened. On immigration I would keep quiet – I would go for cutting ourselves off EU’s apron strings. That would free up the country economically, politically, socially – the UK Presidency of the Council of the EU in July 05 should be interesting

I think you are right about keeping quiet about immigration – the majority of people agree with the Tory stance (but then don’t Labour *claim* to be tough on immigration too?) but they don’t, I feel, like talking about it, or indeed hearing about it. The Tories must focus on what differentiates them from the other parties. What they must not do is (a) get forced to take up more ‘extreme’ positions to increase those differences; and (b) get dragged into fighting on issues which are strong for the Government. They should also not get too excited about the ‘neo-conservative’ (which, like New Labour, is neither) ideas from across the pond – despite a recent mention by the Social Affairs unit and Melanie Phillips.

Europe is an obvious issue where the Tories both differ from the other 2 parties and are in agreement with a large majority of the population. Trouble is, at the moment, it isn’t really an issue that has much importance to that many people. So it could be an important part of a Tory manifesto, but not the all-important issue.

Perhaps one thing that can be done is to consider things that British people are worried about, and then to come up with solutions that fit in with traditional Conservative values. One issue that is of great important to many (young) people is that of the difficulty of buying a first home. Could the Tories come up with an innovative way of helping people get onto the property ladder – as one’s right to private property is an important tenet of Conservatism.

I’ll stop there as this is turning into an essay. Would like to know what other Borisphiles think.

By the way, the new BORIS! Club site is up and running… http://www.funkwear.co.uk – I’m offering two random users who signup between now and Feb 28th a free BORIS t-shirt. How good is that? That’s gooooood.

Without taking a position on this, I’d suggest that any political party can only do a certain amount of campaigning on negative issues such as immigration and crime, and have to produce some attractive positive ideas to get themselves elected.

While the Tories are unlikely to put forward a strong message on public services or foreign policy, I would have thought they could address the hugely important subject of modernization, and do a lot better on the environment, personal liberties and the arts.

Melissa: how about a new entry on election strategy rather than burying it this Chinese internet topic?